CRM Success Tips Blog

Many businesspeople and professionals have an occasional work-from-home day. But working from home exclusively - and unexpectedly - takes things to a different level and can require some effort. Now that so many shelter-in-place orders are in effect around the country, many of us find ourselves sharing our (often makeshift) home offices with family members, roommates and children (who now need a home classroom). Once an anticipated indulgence, working from home is becoming a struggle to maintain productivity while juggling distractions, limited space and resources. Our team at CLIENTSFirst Consulting has been working remotely for more than a decade. All of our employees work exclusively from home offices and, as a result,

While it may seem shocking that more than half of marriages end in divorce, what may be a more interesting statistic is that even fewer technology implementations have a happy ending. In fact, according to respected researchers, up to 70% of technology implementations fail. And while many people may take the leap and get married again, you often don\'t get a second chance at a failed marketing technology implementation, especially in a law firm. That separation is frequently final. In today’s hyper-competitive legal marketplace, where attorneys are being required to learn new skills like project management and alternative pricing, you would think that they would eagerly embrace any marketing technology that could

Bad data has many negative and costly effects, but one of the most serious is being blacklisted. Email blacklisting can cause an organization’s communications to be blocked and made undeliverable, essentially branding the organization as a spammer and shutting down its ability to communicate with clients and other contacts. The effects of blacklisting can be long-lasting, time-consuming and quite expensive to fix. How Email Blacklisting Happens There are many ways an organization or IP address can be blacklisted. Some email applications have a spam button that can be clicked if a user considers an email to be spam. If email recipients click the button, some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) may conclude that

Marketing technology in a professional services firm typically includes three main systems: Client Relationship Management (CRM), eMarketing or Marketing Automation systems and the firm’s website. These are all very different systems with distinct functions and purposes. CRM is primarily used to hold information on contacts such as location, title, phone number and email address, to segment or categorize contacts into email and event lists and to track activities with contacts or companies. Marketing automation is used to send emails and record interactions with those emails. The firm’s website provides information on the firm and its professionals and expertise. This can include office locations, practice specialties, detailed biographies and articles or alerts. Benefits

The rapid pace of technology development can be dizzying. In the professional services arena, technology is accelerating change in every department and practice and affects almost all roles and responsibilities. In particular, marketing and business development professionals today are being tasked with implementing and understanding an increasingly wide array of technologies including CRM and ERM, digital marketing and event management tools, websites and blogs, proposal and experience systems and sales pipelines and other related and integrated systems. A New View of CRM CRM or Client Relationship Management is often at the center of the technology landscape. This is not only because CRM has been a core technology for decades but also because

When Does CCPA Start? The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is effective January 1, 2020. It also includes a 12-month “look-back” period to January 1, 2019. It is also important to note that several amendments to the Act are still pending. What Does CCPA Say? While a good part of CCPA is directed at entities who collect and sell personal information for profit, there are significant sections that would be applicable to professional services firms. Specifically, the Act is intended to: “…grant a consumer a right to request a business to disclose the categories and specific pieces of personal information that it collects about the consumer, the categories of sources from which

A happy holiday season starts with a clean mailing list. Whether your firm sends holiday greetings electronically or mails traditional physical cards, so much effort goes into this annual ritual – from decisions around the format to the design, to the artwork and/or animation, to gift or not to gift, or maybe a charitable donation. And let’s not forget that the wording of the greeting itself must be politically correct. It’s enough to make you dread the upcoming holiday season (or go looking for some strong eggnog!) But we’re going to focus on a more mundane, yet critical function: the nuts and bolts of making sure your holiday mailing list is clean,

Building your own dream home is something that many people want to do someday. While the concept sounds lovely—having your perfect place with all of the features your heart desires—many people don\'t contemplate that, like any worthwhile project, it can also be a lot of work. Planning for and selecting a CRM system can actually be a lot like building that house. You can look at multiple models, pick out the features you want and make decisions about any optional upgrades. You can evaluate options and look on websites for ideas and see how certain features and functions work. Sounds like fun. But people who have built their dream house will tell

Did you ever spend time researching and shopping for something you really wanted? You looked at it online – maybe even made a trip to a brick and mortar store – and then, once you concluded that it was exactly what you wanted, you place your order to be delivered, and you wait… Then, after much anticipation the box arrives and, alas, you discover that the item you have been eagerly awaiting is not fully assembled. In fact, it has a lot of scattered parts and pieces and directions that don’t seem very helpful (but at least they are available in eight languages!) At this point, a little disappointment sets in as

Here are a few more top tips to help you gain the upper hand with dirty data and prevent future contact collapses. To see the rest of the list, read The Dirty Data Domino Effect: Mastering the Game – Part 3. People and Processes: To prevent bad data in the future, take the time to talk to the individuals who are the contributors to and custodians of existing data sources. Of course, this includes your system users. Communicate with them about the importance of good data quality and train them to help prevent future problems. Also be sure to assess existing processes and procedures to determine how the current data domino situation